Badly Skewed Priorities

According to Colorado secretary of state filings, Focus on the Family has donated $500,000 to Colorado Family Action, Inc., an organization it helped establish for the sole purpose of supporting two state constitutional amendments.

The first amendment the group supports is one that would limit marriage to a heterosexual union, and the other would prohibit legal recognition of domestic partnerships.

I am not trying to imply there is anything illegal or unethical about Focus on the Family's actions. As far as I know, they have not broken any laws here or breached any ethical standards. Have they followed God's word? That's where I think they run into trouble.

The Bible talks A LOT about an equitable distribution of wealth and the moral obligation of those with wealth to share it with the poor and disadvantaged. Here is just one of the many scriptures that support this fundamental truth of God's Kingdom.

1John 3:17 (NIV) But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Focus on the Family is an organization that claims it's primary reason for existence is "to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a practical outreach to homes." I wondered what kind of homes that $500,000 could have been spread to in their own home base of Colorado Springs, so I did some research.

According to a survey taken in 2000, there were 830 people living on the street in Colorado Springs and another 1,090 living in transitional housing. While those numbers have certainly changed, it is reasonable to think that there are still upwards of 1,000 people who could have been enormously blessed by a small portion of that $500,000 Focus on the Family decided to instead use on a political campaign.

In a survey conducted in 2003 by the U. S. Census Bureau in Colorado Springs, "9 percent of people were in poverty. Thirteen percent of related children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 8 percent of people 65 years old and over. Seven percent of all families and 22 percent of families with a female householder and no husband present had incomes below the poverty level. " That's better than a lot of cities, but out of a population reported at 535,000, that would still leave close to 50,000 people who could have benefitted from the $500,000 used to restrict the rights of GLBT people.

So how does Focus on the Family sync up giving so much funding to this political organization with what they claim is their "primary reason for existance" and the Word of God?

Honestly, I don't really care how they would justify and rationalize these actions. I do wish, however, that they would come clean with everyone and just declare Focus on the Family a Political Action Committee instead of leagally laundering money to other groups.